'The Bachelor' Recap: One With Nature

Ben Flajnik took the contestants into the great outdoors in Park City, Utah, for horseback riding, fly fishing and a cocktail party throwdown.

ABC

The same week that Ben Flajnik is enjoying some time in Park City, Utah, at the Sundance Film Festival, the episode of The Bachelor that aired had Ben and the ladies hanging out with Mother Nature in the same city. Ben challenges the women by taking them on "outdoorsey" dates, from canoeing to horseback riding and fly fishing.

The First Date
Rachel (the one with the nose ring) gets the first date, and she's whisked away in a helicopter with Ben as the other women look on with envy. They go canoeing, and then on a picnic. The scenery is beautiful, but the conversation is lacking.

It may just be the clever editing, but the date looks like it begins to spin ever more out of control and into boredomland at dinner. She may be nervous, but Rachel continues to make strange comments about the scenery and doesn’t open up. Despite all this, Ben gives her the rose.

The Group Date
“Let’s see if you’re a great catch,” reads the group date card. Ben steals a trick from Lindzi and welcomes the ladies on horseback. He’s taking the women to work for their dinner – fly fishing. Model Courtney again reminds everyone that she’s here to win it. “These other girls don’t have their eye on the prize and I do,” she says.

She decides to pull Ben away while they’re fishing, and she even catches a fish, igniting jealousy in the rest of the group. "I feel like, in many ways, I caught him today,” she says.

At the group cocktails, Samantha pulls Ben aside to talk to him about how upset she is that she hasn’t been on any one-on-one dates with him. Ben is not having it, and decides to throw this fish back into the sea. “I don’t see this going much further. I wonder if you take this seriously enough. Based on the track record, I’m thinking we should end this right now,” he says before sending her packing right there and then.

After Ben spends some private time with Kacie B., Courtney moves in for the kill, telling him that she hates being without him. Her manipulation works, and Ben gives Courtney the rose that he had intended for Kacie B. Ben just can’t seem to see anything other than Courtney’s model good looks.

The Second Date
Jennifer gets the second one-on-one date, which involves a pretty terrifying drop into a crater that Jennifer passes with flying colors. They have a good talk, and she gets the rose. The also spend some time at a Clay Walker concert.

The Rose Ceremony
At the pre-rose ceremony cocktail party, Emily makes the classic Bachelor mistake of using her time with Ben to complain about another contestant – Courtney. Emily returns to the group and gets into it with Casey S., who is defending Courtney. Casey then tells Courtney about what’s going on, and that’s when Courtney shows her tough side.

"I'm a nice person. Don't f--k with me,” Courtney says, but then basically contradicts it by saying, “I almost just want to rip her head off and verbally assault her.”

The two women get into a confrontation, and Courtney is sure to throw her rose in Emily’s face. “Winning, I got a rose. You don’t,” she says.

Despite breaking the Number 1 rule of The Bachelor, Emily is given a rose, along with Lindzi, Jamie, Nicki, Kacie, Elyse, Blakeley and Casey. Monica is sent home.